That's what a man wants in a wife, mostly; he wants to make sure one fool tells him he's wise.

Speech is often barren; but silence also does not necessarily brood over a full nest. Your still fowl, blinking at you without remark, may all the while be sitting on one addled egg; and when it takes to cackling will have nothing to announce but that addled delusion.

A prig is a fellow who is always making you a present of his opinions.

Man may content himself with the applause of the world and the homage paid to his intellect, but woman's heart has holier idols.

To have in general but little feeling, seems to be the only security against feeling too much on any particular occasion.

There is no sorrow I have thought more about than that-to love what is great, and try to reach it, and yet to fail.

But if Maggie had been that young lady, you would probably have known nothing about her: her life would have had so few vicissitudes that it could hardly have been written; for the happiest women, like the happiest nations, have no history.